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My issue with Gates is that he wants to fight climate change, yet he's personally an environmental disaster with his yachts and jets. I'm not saying he has to l

My issue with Gates is that he wants to fight climate change, yet he's personally an environmental disaster with his yachts and jets. I'm not saying he has to live like a monk to be credible, and maybe his foundation is doing a good job (never looked into it), but either he's an hypocrite, or I disagree with him on how to fight climate change.

faku812 1y ago
It's all about virtue signaling. All he cares about is if people someday decide to "eat the rich" he won't be the first one on the menu.
- calepayson 1y ago
  This is a silly way to interpret someone donating over $100B to charity.
abound 1y ago
I think it's pretty clearly hypocritical, but also if his actions are (far) more than offsetting his own emissions and impact, it's still a net positive. Of course, he could choose to not live a super-high consumption lifestyle in addition to his climate philanthopy, but if I had to take one or the other, I'd rather him continue throwing money at climate work than take fewer private jet rides.
- eastbound 1y ago
  My issue is, he wants to fight climate change… then tries to spend $200bn in less than 20 years. This afflux of money creates a spike of consumerism, then a sudden dip after that. Consultants in foundations will scramble to spend that money for sure, and they themselves will buy private jets for that. The way to fight climate change is to keep people at a low level of consumption, and spend his own money very slowly, very scarcely. And keep people with small cars, no Cadillac for any consultant.
- yupitsme123 1y ago
  How do we measure if something is a net positive or negative when we're talking about global-level decisions? This has always been the sticking point for me when it comes to supporting large charities.
- xienze 1y ago
  But... he could easily do both. This is why I have such a hard time taking anything said about climate change seriously from the likes of Gore, Gates, and celebrities. They don’t practice what they preach. And it’s not like we’re talking about some huge sacrifices here. Go from a 50K sqft house to a “modest” 10k sqft one. Don’t sail around on personal yachts. Fly commercial. Use Zoom. Simple stuff that would give them a lot more credibility. As it is, it’s a whole lot of “do as I say, not as I do.”
- im3w1l 1y ago
  I think it matters how it's done. If someone has super high consumption but also invests in clean energy to save the climate that's cool by be. If someone has super high consumption but also invests money into lobbying to deny the lower classes access to consumption as a means of saving the climate I would resent that person.
lillecarl 1y ago
While it might be hypocritical it doesn't matter whatsoever what he does with his personal life if his foundation is pouring billions into making the world a better place. Helping people out of poverty is really bad for the environment too but I don't think we should be complaining when someone does that. On a global scale his yacht(s?) and private jets are nothing, and if it helps him do good by establishing/maintaining relationships with the right people they're an "investment" into a stopping climate change. A bit of a naive take as opposed to yours.
- yupitsme123 1y ago
  I'll ask the same question I've asked elsewhere because "I want to believe:" How do you measure how much someone has made the world a better place? Especially when so much of their actions, their consequences, and their second and third order effects are either unknowable or papered over by PR campaigns.
  - lillecarl 1y ago
    You can't really measure how much good someone has done, but their foundation has been going for 25 years and as mentioned in the article they've donated 100billion dollars to something already. If anyone deserves a bit of good faith it'd be the Gates family, it's probably not all pretty and perfect but I am convinced they're doing a lot of good. You'll have to ask someone else about proof, but I imagine someone would've leaked something within these 25 years if they were running a tax evasion scheme or something else fishy. So without hard proof I repeat: Let Bill have his toys, it's a piss in the bucket on a global scale and the donated 100 billion dollars will have offset that in some way or another many times over. Let's just say my "sniff test" says good, and while not always right I think I am here and that's good enough for me.
  - calepayson 1y ago
    I don't think you can. I think the best we have is intention and Gates seems to have good intentions to me.
comboy 1y ago
If his net effect on the climate is positive then you are only arguing that he could be even more efficient at it - but you are not in position to do that without knowing all his personal context. Outside you can only judge the net result - which is not a bad one.
PoignardAzur 1y ago
Serious question: how bad is the footprint of Gate's yachts and jets and similar luxury stuff? I genuinely have no idea. I mean, having more than one of either already seems ridiculously wasteful to me, and I don't care if that's standard billionaire lifestyle.
BeetleB 1y ago
Being a hypocrite is a fairly minor sin, and doesn't take away from the good he does. I could make a long list of worse qualities Bill Gates possesses, but I'll still acknowledge the good.

faku812 1y ago

It's all about virtue signaling. All he cares about is if people someday decide to "eat the rich" he won't be the first one on the menu.

calepayson 1y ago
This is a silly way to interpret someone donating over $100B to charity.

abound 1y ago

I think it's pretty clearly hypocritical, but also if his actions are (far) more than offsetting his own emissions and impact, it's still a net positive. Of course, he could choose to not live a super-high consumption lifestyle in addition to his climate philanthopy, but if I had to take one or the other, I'd rather him continue throwing money at climate work than take fewer private jet rides.

eastbound 1y ago
My issue is, he wants to fight climate change… then tries to spend $200bn in less than 20 years. This afflux of money creates a spike of consumerism, then a sudden dip after that. Consultants in foundations will scramble to spend that money for sure, and they themselves will buy private jets for that. The way to fight climate change is to keep people at a low level of consumption, and spend his own money very slowly, very scarcely. And keep people with small cars, no Cadillac for any consultant.
yupitsme123 1y ago
How do we measure if something is a net positive or negative when we're talking about global-level decisions? This has always been the sticking point for me when it comes to supporting large charities.
xienze 1y ago
But... he could easily do both. This is why I have such a hard time taking anything said about climate change seriously from the likes of Gore, Gates, and celebrities. They don’t practice what they preach. And it’s not like we’re talking about some huge sacrifices here. Go from a 50K sqft house to a “modest” 10k sqft one. Don’t sail around on personal yachts. Fly commercial. Use Zoom. Simple stuff that would give them a lot more credibility. As it is, it’s a whole lot of “do as I say, not as I do.”
im3w1l 1y ago
I think it matters how it's done. If someone has super high consumption but also invests in clean energy to save the climate that's cool by be. If someone has super high consumption but also invests money into lobbying to deny the lower classes access to consumption as a means of saving the climate I would resent that person.

lillecarl 1y ago

While it might be hypocritical it doesn't matter whatsoever what he does with his personal life if his foundation is pouring billions into making the world a better place. Helping people out of poverty is really bad for the environment too but I don't think we should be complaining when someone does that. On a global scale his yacht(s?) and private jets are nothing, and if it helps him do good by establishing/maintaining relationships with the right people they're an "investment" into a stopping climate change. A bit of a naive take as opposed to yours.

yupitsme123 1y ago
I'll ask the same question I've asked elsewhere because "I want to believe:" How do you measure how much someone has made the world a better place? Especially when so much of their actions, their consequences, and their second and third order effects are either unknowable or papered over by PR campaigns.
- lillecarl 1y ago
  You can't really measure how much good someone has done, but their foundation has been going for 25 years and as mentioned in the article they've donated 100billion dollars to something already. If anyone deserves a bit of good faith it'd be the Gates family, it's probably not all pretty and perfect but I am convinced they're doing a lot of good. You'll have to ask someone else about proof, but I imagine someone would've leaked something within these 25 years if they were running a tax evasion scheme or something else fishy. So without hard proof I repeat: Let Bill have his toys, it's a piss in the bucket on a global scale and the donated 100 billion dollars will have offset that in some way or another many times over. Let's just say my "sniff test" says good, and while not always right I think I am here and that's good enough for me.
- calepayson 1y ago
  I don't think you can. I think the best we have is intention and Gates seems to have good intentions to me.

comboy 1y ago

If his net effect on the climate is positive then you are only arguing that he could be even more efficient at it - but you are not in position to do that without knowing all his personal context. Outside you can only judge the net result - which is not a bad one.

PoignardAzur 1y ago

Serious question: how bad is the footprint of Gate's yachts and jets and similar luxury stuff? I genuinely have no idea. I mean, having more than one of either already seems ridiculously wasteful to me, and I don't care if that's standard billionaire lifestyle.

BeetleB 1y ago

Being a hypocrite is a fairly minor sin, and doesn't take away from the good he does. I could make a long list of worse qualities Bill Gates possesses, but I'll still acknowledge the good.